LONDON – Prior to the final frame of his bout with Japanese star Yoshihiro Akiyama, veteran UFC middleweight Michael Bisping circled the cage, lifted his arms and summoned the energy of a soldout crowd at The 02 in London.

His fellow Brits apparently fueled the championship hopeful, and Bisping ultimately closed out the fight in dominant fashion to earn a unanimous-decision victory.

The fight headlined Saturday’s UFC 120 event, which aired live in most parts of the world but via same-day delay on Spike TV in the U.S.

The win, though, did come with a bit of controversy.

Both fighters kept the three-rounder in the upright position, and after two competitive rounds in which each competitor landed some significant blows, Bisping unloaded the biggest in the third. Unfortunately, it was an illegal kick to the groin, which connected and echoed throughout the arena and sent Akiyama into a heap on the canvas.

The ref called for a timeout, and Bisping, who had unloaded a nice series of punches and head kicks before the crotch shot, immediately apologized. Akiyama quickly acknowledged it was accidental, but the fighter lay on the mat in obviously excruciating pain.

After a few minutes of recovery time, Akiyama returned to his feet and signaled that he was OK to continue. But he was never the same, and Bisping closed out the round in dominant fashion to earn the win via scores of 30-27 on all three judges’ cards.

It was a nice win and recovery for Bisping, who was rocked early in the fight by one of his opponent’s stiff right-handed punches.

“I thought, ‘Ah [expletive], this isn’t a good start,'” Bisping joked. “I expected a tough challenge, but I truly believed in my training and my skills and my ability to win this fight.”

Following the win, Bisping was asked about his future goals, including a shot at a thus-far-elusive middleweight title. But “The Ultimate Fighter 3″ winner shrugged off mounting criticism that his heart isn’t in the sport and said his goal remains the same.

“No one works harder than me, and no one wants it more than me,” he said. “Hopefully, with a bit of luck, I’ll get the gold soon.”

Bisping (20-3 MMA, 10-3 UFC) now has won three of four fights since a setback KO defeat to Dan Henderson at UFC 100. Akiyama (13-3 MMA, 1-2 UFC), who was submitted by Chris Leben earlier this year, suffers the first back-to-back losses of his career.

Despite a dozen career knockouts wins, Carlos Condit had never gotten much respect as a striker. But following a vicious knockout of KO artist Dan Hardy in UFC 120’s co-headliner, the former WEC champ is likely to get a bit more respect.

The vicious first-round KO left both Hardy and his numerous British fans in stunned silence.

With a strategic first round apparently headed to the judges, both fighters swung wildly with looping punches. Condit missed on a right, and Hardy’s missed wide with one of his own. But Condit continued the combo and caught his opponent with a perfectly placed and absolutely crushing left hook to the cheek.

Hardy instantly fell to his back, and Condit follow with a quick right-left combo before referee Dan Miragliotta could push him away and stop the fight.

The crushing KO came at the 4:27 mark of the round.

“We had been working on that,” Condit said.

Although initially dazed from the big blow, Hardy pushed away the ref and medical personnel and quickly returned to his feet.

So what went wrong?

“I got punched in the face,” Hardy deadpanned. “That’s why it’s a sport. You can win or lose at anytime.”

For Condit (26-5 MMA, 3-1 UFC), it was his first knockout win since a beatdown of WEC fighter Hiromitsu Miura more than two years ago. Hardy (23-8 MMA, 4-2 UFC), who dropped a decision to welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre back in March, now has suffered back-to-back losses for just the second time in his career.

John Hathaway is undefeated no more.

After dealing with some inconsistency upon his long-awaited UFC arrival in 2009, veteran welterweight Mike Pyle saved one of his most impressive performances for one of his toughest opponents of late, and he scored a unanimous-decision victory over the previously unbeaten Hathaway.

Pyle – a former WEC champ and IFL/EliteXC/Strikeforce/Sengoku veteran who’s defeated fighters such as Jon Fitch and Dan Hornbuckle during an illustrious 11-year career– simply overwhelmed Hathaway and took the British youngster out of his game. With quick takedowns, a smothering top game and dominant ground positions, Pyle kept his opponent from mounting any type of sustained offense and ultimately swept Hathaway on the judges’ scorecards.

Pyle was especially effective in the second round, when he secured an inverted triangle choke from side position. He secured the hold for the final two minutes of the round and delivered a steady stream of punches and elbow strikes as Hathaway dejectedly tried to block the blows. The assault continued in the third, when more takedowns allowed Pyle to smother and batter his over-matched opponent.

In the end, Pyle, who entered the fight as a 4-to-1 underdog, won every round on each scorecard and earned the unanimous-decision victory via 30-27 scores.

Among his 21 career wins, Pyle (21-7-1 MMA, 3-2 UFC) now has gone to a decision for just the second time in his career. Hathaway (14-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC), who was entered the UFC’s welterweight title picture with recent wins over the likes of Rick Story and Diego Sanchez, tastes defeat for the first time in his four-year career.

In the main card’s lone heavyweight bout, it appeared only a matter of time until Travis Browne‘s wild and frantic striking would cost him dearly. Luckily for the once-unheralded heavyweight, that time never came.

Instead, Browne’s baffling offense – which initially included big looping punches until the majority of his work came from the clinch and against the cage – left opponent Cheick Kongo confused, unable to mount any substantial offense, and forced to resort to some dirty tactics. Still, it wasn’t enough to pick up the win, and instead, the fight was declared a disappointing draw via 28-28 scores.

After that dominant first round and a closer second, which ultimately was scored in Kongo’s favor, Browne clearly was winded in the third. But despite his heavy breathing and some damage Kongo inflicted with short knees strikes to the inside thigh, Browne avoided any major damage. But with Kongo’s third-round point deduction for grabbing his opponent’s shorts while in the clinch (yet no deductions for multiple knees to the groin), the round ended with a 9-9 score and overall draw.

The decision, though, was largely expected, and the fight result was met largely with disinterest from The 02 crowd.

Browne (10-0-1 MMA, 1-0-1 UFC) remains undefeated with the draw while Kongo (15-6-2 MMA, 8-4-1 UFC) falls to 1-2-1 in his past four fights, all in the UFC.

Anyone who thought UFC 120 would be a showcase bout for “The Ultimate Fighter 9″ winner and British fighter James Wilks can blame Claude Patrick for a rude surprise.

The Canadian fighter thoroughly dominated and outclassed Wilks both standing (with effective clinch work) and especially on the mat (with a dominating and smothering top game) to pick up a unanimous-decision victory.

It wasn’t the flashiest win, but Patrick completely shut down Wilks’ offense and left his opponent desperately looking for any type of submission attempt from his back. With few mistakes made and avoiding troublesome positions, the Canadian-fight-circuit veteran never gave Wilks the opportunity.

In the end, Patrick earned the unanimous-decision win via scores of 30-27.

With the win, Patrick (13-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC), who submitted Ricardo Funch in his UFC debut earlier this year, now owns a 12-fight win streak with 12 stoppages. Wilks (7-4 MMA, 2-2), meanwhile, has dropped two of three, which included a TKO loss to Matt Brown a year ago in England.

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